"Would You Believe...

they put me in timeout even when I'm all dressed up in my adorable Sunday dress?!?!"

Being 2 is tough; being 2 with receptive and expressive language delay, cognition delay, and a few naughty examples to follow is really tough.

Good thing she's so cute...even in timeout.

Winter Wonderland-ish

When it starts doing this as pre-school ends...

Mamma's gonna get her camera to take pictures like this.

Then it stopped and look at what we saw...

She finally woke up so I could take pictures like this.

And this.

Once I get going...

I just keep going.

Then it was time to pick the big boys up at school. So I could take more pictures. ;)

They were so excited to tell me how they were, "on rainy day schedule, but DIDN'T FOLLOW IT because we got to go out and play in the snow!" Um, yeah, snow day here means that the school kids go out into it and play. They went out in shifts...probably a pretty good idea. Such an exciting day for them.

This cute pose was all him.

He was way into getting to climb the rocks for his picture.

Since I had all five with  me and awake I figured we might as well see what kind of group shot we could manage...

He's not a junior mama like an oldest girl would be, but, he has found his inner "big brother".

The little kids cooperate with holding hands and following when it's his idea. And it's ADORABLE.

They wanted to check out what was on the other side of the cave....besides the snooty rich people that are so horrified about mingling with the commoners that they live on the other side of a mountain.

It was a huge bonus to discover snow at home too!!

From the balcony...

Snow guaranteed to have no rocks in the snowballs.

Had the potential to be a super cute shot, still makes me smile.

Such cuteness.

She had to finish the snow day off by watching from inside.

Never managed to get to the daily load of dishes or 2 loads of laundry, but just how often do you get to play in this much snow without leaving town? Yeah, never. I bet all the golfers are enjoying our mild winter weather right about now. ;-)

The Blazing Blueberry!

That's Gabriel's 1st Pinewood Derby on the left.

He put LOTS of hours into it, and it paid off...

BY EARNING 1ST PLACE!!

(It is blue with a lightning streak down it...thus the name)

As the races went on he kept winning. It was kind of a funny feeling. We don't have straight A kids or even consistently well-behaved kids. We're focusing their childhoods on things that develop a uniquely 'them' identity rather than push them so hard at being the best at something and making their self worth dependent upon whether they're at the top of their "thing" or not. They're smart, funny, cute, and fun. Rarely do we find ourselves with the "my kid's the best" issue to deal with. Issue, you ask? Yes, issue. Have you met those kids that are always the "best"? If you have, you get it. If you haven't, someday you will. ;-) Fun times...

Anyway, I digress...

He was winning and winning. Garrett was keeping track of how many races Gabriel had been in and how many he'd won. It was cute. Gabriel kept his composure SO WELL!!! For real, he continued to be kind  to other boys. He smiled when he won, but didn't start getting obnoxious in his happy excitement. I felt so proud **not of his car** of his continued good behavior. He didn't do anything that was demeaning to the other kids. He gave compliments to the other racers, and was just plain old nice.

  We value being nice over just about everything else in life.It's SOOO rare now!

After we left we told him how proud of his behavior we were. He said thanks, but I smiled a few times. Poor kid. He then said something that let us know he was feeling kind of awkward too. He was beaming. We talked about how he'd shown good sportsmanship. Smiling and feeling happy about doing well is ok as long as you don't make someone else feel deflated in the process (in age appropriate terms of course). Being a gracious winner is as important as being a gracious loser. The concerted effort it has/does take for him to conquer reading and writing has obviously left an imprint on his little psyche; it was nice seeing him excel at something. 

Later that night we took all of them out for dessert to celebrate the win and the good behavior. Like I said the whole being best thing isn't a frequent issue so celebrating big when it does come up is fun. Taking them all to a restaurant isn't frequent either! 
Think 3 ring circus.

They were seated VERY strategically seated in hopes of encouraging socially acceptable behavior in public. 

 

These two can usually handle themselves together.

We banked on Gabriel being willing to share with his little brother, as opposed to Garrett who doesn't count. Garrett and Lincoln can't be withing 10 feet of each other without fighting.

Success.

Lynneah is just a "baby" which is the only reason we bet Garrett would  be able to stand the idea of sharing with another human being...because sharing is a VERY hard thing for him.

Success.

I wish I'd had a camcorder when they brought the desserts out...THEN put it down IN FRONT OF HER...then we LET HER DIG IN *WITHOUT* HELP.

Her eyes were huge, well huge for her, and the excitement was radiating from her whole little being.

Success.

Loved the chocolate.

Success.

Told ya they were cute!

We Are A Happy Family...

And we can prove it!

Destructress

Hmmm, that's the color of Lynneah's crib. Why is it laying on the floor in the hallway?

Oh, of course, she busted it off the side of the crib we'd just taken off.

So much for Kenzie moving into it. It served us well for 4 kids.

Side removed from room. Boxes removed from room. Dresser secured in closet. Nothing left but the box of shoes waiting to be grown into...

Yet, still so entertaining.

I think I'd rather the tired little girl just take a nap.

In between destroying everything in her path she LOVES the new mat on the trampoline!

We paid one dollar extra to have a replacement mat made in the U.S. by Loretta in Georgia rather than a 6 year old in China.

This girl has always loved, loved, loved jumping. As a baby she jumped in the jumparoo so vigorously that it'd creep across the carpet into the middle of the room. Then she discovered hanging on to the side of her crib and jumping her little heart out. I'm surprised the mattress support never broke. What a happy day in her little life when a friend didn't want this trampoline anymore...then the mat sun rotted and broke...then what an exciting day when the new one came and she was back in business! I need to find one of those little indoor exercise trampolines for her.

Bliss!

Her hair is awesome when the static gets to it. :-D

Yes, they are caged while they jump. No, I never jumped in a cage and survived, they still get a cage.

On tap for this summer:

1) Jumping with the sprinkler under the trampoline (favorite from my childhood)

2) Sleep over night in sleeping bags on the trampoline (I declare it counts as camping)

3) General energy using jumping, jumping, jumping

I have a computer that turns on again!! Woo Hoo. It's been a loooong frustrating several months. The kiddos knocked it off the arm of the couch and it refused to turn on again. It's been fun for them too. Every time they asked to play the computer I reminded them that they knocked it off the couch and broke it so, "No, no you can't play on the computer". Smart phones just aren't computers...and they like to think they're smarter than us too!

This is the current background. Isn't it such a happy picture? I think my kids are cuter, though, so I've gotta figure out how to get them on here. {;-D